Winner: Steven Tomkins
“I only did what any other bus driver would have done.”
That was the modest reaction from Steven Tomkins after he became the winner of the Local Hero award.
The accolade went to Steven after judges heard of the way he jumped straight into action when an asthmatic little girl stopped breathing.
She was only two-yearsoldatthetime.
His calm and collected reaction involved him trying to resuscitate her. He called an ambulance as well.
And if that’s not enough, hedidallthatonthebushe had only just qualified to drive.
But when he was announced as an award winner, he said: “I did not expect anything like this. I am overwhelmed.”
Steven was working on the 99 route from Silksworth to Seaburn at the time.
He said: “I had gone over thebridgeandIalwaysremember two lasses got on the bus. I hadn’t gone very far when one of them was quite agitated and saying a child had stopped breathing.
“I pulled the bus over and I got her inhaler. I phoned the ambulance and made sure she carried on breathing until the ambulance turned up.”
The next thing he knew, the ambulance had taken the girl away and people were telling Steven that he was a life-saver in the way that he had reacted so quickly.
But Steven said: “I was just doing what any other bus driver would have done. I reacted in what I thought was the correct manner.”
He said that two weeks after the incident he got a letter to say the girl had made a recovery.
Also shortlisted: Len Gibson. Michael Gelling. Ellis Coupland and Kian Henderson.